


After the Battle

by Tigger_14



Series: Post season 6 fics [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), I just want Lance to tell Keith that he wasn't a bad leader, M/M, PINING KEITH, Post Season 6, Post-Season/Series 06, Pre-Relationship, kind of pining lance, pre-klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-25 01:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14966483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tigger_14/pseuds/Tigger_14
Summary: After the battle with Lotor, they sit on a desolate planet to rest until they must make the long trek back to Earth.





	After the Battle

**Author's Note:**

> So, this story takes place after season 6. Keith is aged up 2 years (he's 21 and Lance is 18). This will be a series, all the stories taking place after season 6 and (probably) in order.

The battle is over and they’re going back to Earth. Keith is looking forward to going back, getting some real Earth food, checking on his bike, and maybe showing his mom his dad’s grave. _She might want to see it._ He thinks to himself. The team took it pretty well that he found his mom. Lance’s reaction was loud and over the top about his return, _but isn’t that what’s to be expected?_ Keith chuckles to himself at the thought. If he’s honest with himself, of everyone, he missed Lance the most. Don’t get him wrong, he missed the others and his brother dearly, but there was always something about Lance that was different. Was it the way they bickered? Was it the way they got closer before Keith left? _No, it was definitely the fact that he had a crush on Lance even before he left for the blade._ He rolls his eyes to himself.

“Something you want to talk about?” His mom asks as she sits beside him. His space wolf, Yorak, on his other side. They’re landed on a planet resting before they make their trek back to Earth. It’s gonna be a long one and they could use the rest after the battle with Lotor and Shiro and putting Shiro’s essence into his clones body.

“No. Just thinking.” Keith looks over at his mom and gives her a small smile.

“Okay. Are you happy to be back with your friends? I know you missed them while we were gone.” His mom asks.

Keith looks around at his friends, his team, his family. Yeah, he did miss them. So much had changed for him and between them, but it was still familiar, still the same. “Yeah. I did miss them.” He looks around again and sees Pidge and Hunk talking about science stuff, Coran occasionally adding input. Allura sitting with Shiro, watching over him while he rests. But no Lance. _Where’s Lance?_ He thinks. His mom must realize who he’s looking for because she points him in the direction of a cliff not too far away where Lance is sitting alone. _Why is he alone?_

“Go talk to him; it looks like he could use the company.” His mom nudges him to get moving.

“Okay, okay. I’m going.” He says as he stands to walk over to his longtime crush/right hand man. He goes over and sits next to Lance, making sure to jostle him a little to get his attention.

As predicted, Lance squawks as Keith sits, shooting him a glare. Keith just smiles back innocently. “Hey, Lance. Long time no talk.”

Lance smiles a little, “Yeah, it has been awhile.”

“How have been? How are you holding up now? Are you okay?”

Lance looks a little surprised by the questioning, but quickly settles and answers. “I’m okay. It’s been a lot going on. Kinda nice to just relax for a bit. And then we get to go home.” He smiles a little.

Keith smiles back. “Yeah. It has been crazy. Earth will be nice too. You excited to see your family?”

Lance nods, “Yeah, yeah. I’m glad. I’ve missed them.” Keith expects Lance to say more, but he doesn’t and Keith is honestly a bit worried. He remembers Lance as being this loud fun-loving guy, but he’s not as loud; yes he’s matured, Keith can see that, can also see that he can still have fun, but there is something off; something wrong.

“Are you really okay, Lance?” Keith asks again.

Lance takes so long to answer that Keith doesn’t think he will, but then he does. “I’m okay, just kinda sad I guess? Kinda confused. But…” Lance looks at the ground and Keith thinks he’s definitely not going to answer without some help.

“But….?” Keith tries to look at Lance’s face but he ducks it just out of view.

“But I don’t know.” Lance throws his hands in the air and suddenly he’s angry. “Everything changed. Everything was different. It was okay, but it also kinda sucked. And I’m really glad you found your mom, but, but…” Lance trails off and Keith is at a loss for words. He’s been in close quarters to Lance for a while, maybe not recently, but even before he’s never seen Lance act this way.

“But what, Lance? I can’t help if you don’t tell me.” Keith leans back and waits.

“But I wish you hadn’t left. And I now that’s selfish, and things weren’t always great, but they were good, I mean, as good as things can be in a war, but I just… we had just stared getting along and we were friends and then you left. It sucked.” By the end of his speech, Keith is stunned. He knew things between him and Lance had gotten better, but he didn’t think he would have gone as far to think that Lance would really _miss_ him.

He takes a second to think and then chuckles, “You know, I never really thought that you would miss me.”

Lance has what Keith can only described as a vaguely offended, vaguely constipated, but mostly hurt look on his face. He turns away so Keith can’t see it and honestly, Keith kind of hates that look.

“Did you really think that I thought so lowly of our friendship that I wouldn’t miss you while you were gone? That I wouldn’t like for you come back and maybe pilot Black again?” Lance looks ahead and stubbornly refuses to look at Keith.

Keith is stunned a bit; he sucked as black paladin back then, it was Shiro’s rightful place, _but that wasn’t really Shiro._

“I wasn’t supposed to be black paladin then. I thought you of all people would see how bad I was at it.”

“You honestly think that?”

“Think what?”

“That you were a bad leader?” Lance finally looks at him but Keith can’t look back so he leans forward with his hands on his knees and stares out over the cliff 

“I mean, yeah…” he sighs. “I wasn’t as good as Shiro, I split the team up, and we fell right into a trap.”

“That was a mistake, Keith. We have all made mistakes before and you learned from it. You listened.”

Keith doesn’t say anything.

“You know,” Lance doesn’t speak for a moment and Keith looks over to see him leaning back on his hands looking out at the abyss in front of them. “Believe me or not, but you really weren’t a bad leader. I liked you leading and I liked following you,” his cheeks get an little pink but no one mentions it, “You listened when we needed you to and you gave us direction when we needed it. We worked well together.” His cheeks get a little bit pinker, but Keith can tell he stands firm in his statement.

Keith has to look away before looking at this beautiful boy becomes too much. He smiles though, “Thanks, Lance. And for the record, I really missed you too.”

They sit in silence for a little while longer before they head back over to the others to eat and get some sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Talk to me on tumblr @bluespacelions.


End file.
